A San Francisco tennis instructor is suing Waymo, alleging a robotaxi malfunctioned and drove off with his valuable coaching equipment locked in the trunk.
A complaint filed Monday in Superior Court states that Daniel Linley has missed chances to book clients since he watched in frustration as a Waymo cab departed Golden Gate Park on Feb. 7 with his custom rackets, hundreds of tennis balls, and other gear.
“So I’m out a lot of money, and I’ve got all these people on the hook waiting for me,” Linley told The Standard. “I’m not going to spend a lot of money on this unless I get written proof that they’re going to reimburse me, because this should be at their expense.”
Linley, who teaches private lessons and classes through the Recreation and Parks Department, said he took the Waymo to the park after finishing a lesson in the Richmond. Normally, an icon in the robotaxi app allows passengers to open the trunk at the end of the ride. This time, he said, it didn’t appear.
“I called customer service to get them to open it remotely, and while I was on the phone with customer service, the car drove away,” he said.
Linley said he has contacted Waymo multiple times, asking the company to either return his items or pay for them. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue through customer service, he said, he filed a police report in early April.
“It’s unacceptable,” Linley said. “I don’t know how they can’t find this stuff. It didn’t just drive into a black hole.”
The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Linley is seeking $12,500 in damages, the maximum amount allowed in small claims cases. Linley said his actual losses are higher because he can’t book lessons at $100 a pop.
Waymo has not acknowledged that its technology glitched. Instead, it appears to be treating Linley as someone who mistakenly left behind a personal item.
“Waymo is in touch with the individual and working to resolve the claim,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. “Waymo’s Support Team operates with the goal of reuniting riders and their forgotten items.”
Waymo is a party in other legal actions. The company sued two people in July, claiming they vandalized cars from its fleet in separate incidents. One defendant slashed tires on 19 Waymo cars over a three-day spree in June, while the other repeatedly rammed a robotaxi with his Tesla, the company claims.
Additionally, Uber recently threatened to sue the city after Mayor Daniel Lurie granted Waymo permission to operate on Market Street downtown, where other ride-hailing services and private cars are banned.